New York (AFP) – A man who admitted to taking part in a plot to kill an Iranian-American journalist who is a prominent critic of Tehran was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison. Jonathan Loadholt, 37, was arrested in November 2024 and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit stalking and money laundering in the plot targeting Masih Alinejad, who is 49. He and another man, Carlisle Rivera, were charged with accepting $100,000 to kill Alinejad, who lives in the United States.
Rivera was sentenced to 15 years in prison in January after pleading guilty to a count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. The US Justice Department has said the plan to kill Alinejad was ordered by Iran’s government. “Tehran attempted to murder a US journalist in the United States simply because she exposed a few of that regime’s many abuses,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg.
Another suspect remains at large: Farhad Shakeri, an Afghan living in Iran who is accused of recruiting the other two men on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the powerful ideological branch of Iran’s military. Alinejad is one of the most prominent dissident campaigners against Iranian authorities and for years has pushed for the abolition of the obligatory headscarf in Iran under the banner of “MyStealthyFreedom.” She left Iran in 2009.
Alinejad was the target of another assassination attempt thwarted at the last moment in the summer of 2022. She has nearly nine million followers on Instagram.
© 2024 AFP
